The aceramic neolithic fauna of the Central Anatolia - environmental effects, or cultural preferences

Humans have been living with other animals side by side since the beginning of their journey on this planet, and have inevitably been dependent on them for various needs and conditions. In one hand, completely relying on natural resources, the prehistoric people had to hunt and heavily exploit other animals for meat and animal products which were very essential for their survival. On the other hand, animals were worshiped, respected and considered to be very vital in different symbolic activities of human groups since Palaeolithic period. Consequently, as like present human societies, the human-animal relationships in prehistoric period were also very complex and multi-dimensional. Throughout many periods of cultural evolution, perhaps the most crucial stage of human-animal relationships occurred in Neolithic period, particularly during the early phase of Aceramic Neolithic period when human groups were advancing towards a settled socio-cultural and subsistence pattern giving up their nomadic hunting-gathering lifestyle. Contrary to previous periods, Neolithic societies started to live permanently in a certain place throughout the year and hunt animals mainly available in their local environment. Animal species too were forced to cope with this very strange and completely new change in their habitat. Consequently, both humans and animals were going through some very significant and life-changing mutual relationships, which eventually encouraged the domestication of certain ungulate animals in Anatolia and West Asia. Therefore, the essence of the detail study on these complex relationships during this transitional period comes first, if studying any crucial aspect of the human-animal relationships. Providing that the Central Anatolia is among the most important core regions of Neolithisation, this thesis attempted to explore multi-scale aspects of human-animal-environmental interactions in Central Anatolian Aceramic Neolithic period of about one thousand five hundred years. Comparative analysis of the animal remains from seven excavated Aceramic Neolithic settlements in Central Anatolia was the first attempt of this thesis. In the second step, a comprehensive catalogue of the identified animal species of Central Anatolian Aceramic Neolithic settlements has been created. Additionally, the environmental and cultural characteristics of fifty six mammals, birds, reptile fish and invertebrate have been documented as the third step of this study. And in the final stage, it is attempted to demonstrate whether the animals were connected to the Aceramic Neolithic settlements of Central Anatolia for socio-cultural needs of inhabitants or just been used as available resources from their regional environment. It is observed that, Central Anatolian Aceramic Neolithic societies in Cappadocia and Konya Plain were gradually encouraged to domesticate the sheep, possibly because it was the most abundant species in the region as well as most submissive social ungulate in their environment. On the other hand, it is found that perhaps because of strong taboo and highly sensitive symbolic factors, Central Anatolians intentionally did not want to control or domesticate wild boar and aurochs, albeit these two species were also locally abundant as well as domesticated in contemporary settlements of Southeast Anatolia. On the other hand, remains of a wide variety of birds of prey suggest that, they were probably hunted for symbolic and cultural essence as they were less frequent comparing to the terrestrial and water birds in the region. There were also regional and environmental factors among the frequency of animal exploitation in these settlements; for instance, with the blessing of local ecological benefits, horse, donkeys and small mammals were exploited more in the settlements in Konya plain, than the settlements in Cappadocia.